“Our last day”: in Ukraine, mines within the reach of the Russians

Lately, when she went to the mine to work, Galyna Rodionova has seen since her car “Flashes” and heard “Booms” fights in Ukraine. Until his leaders tell him not to come.

For months, Russian troops have been growing in the Donetsk mining region in the east of the country, capturing important industrial sites for the Ukrainian economy. Others suspend their activities, as the enemy approaches.

Galyna Rodionova, 39, worked as a operator near the city of Pokrovsk, in a mine in the village of Oudatché.

Despite the growing danger, she went there without sinking. “We continued to work hard but we looked at each other by saying + it’s probably our last day + and we were laughing”she tells AFP.

In December 2024, his mine was damaged by Russian fire and most of the employees were sent home, including Galyna Rodionova.

She is now working in a pet store in a nearby village. He misses the mine a lot.

The Russian army is currently about six kilometers from the center of Pokrovsk, formerly an industrial city thrives around the largest reserves of Ukraine coal.

In early January, the main mine in the sector, Pokrovsk Coal, which employed 10,000 people before the Russian invasion of 2022, suspended its operations.

It was the last Ukrainian producer of coke coal, a key component for the manufacture of steel, which itself constitutes an important part of Ukrainian exports.

– “Everything is broken” –

Some of the Pokrovsk Coal industrial sites closed in Oudatché are now used by the Ukrainian army. Terrils offer observation points and underground, protection.

The chief sergeant “San Sanytch”its war name, is part of the 59th brigade deployed in the area. He does not know how long his comrades will be able to face the army of the Kremlin.

“We can’t do that much. Even if extraordinary warriors fight in our ranks, the Russians are more numerous than us. It hurts “recognizes the soldier.

The taking of these mines, in addition to a new setback for the Ukrainian army and economy, would constitute an upheaval for the inhabitants.

For decades, life in Donbass, which also includes the Lougansk region, revolves around minors, erected in models of communist values ​​at the time of the USSR.

Galyna Rodionova remembers the holidays of August 31, the minor day, a very important date in Soviet mythology.

“We grew up in these mines, we worked there and passed our lives. Everyone is like that here, in all cities ”notes Ms. Rodionova, met in the village of Rodynské.

As a child, her mother took her to the mine where she herself worked when she had no one to keep her. Then the girl took the mother’s place.

“It was a difficult job but I loved it”said Galyna Rodionova. She did it for 12 years. Before the war “Brise everything”.

“We knew that we had a house, that we earned money, that we could buy things. Now we don’t know … We live day by day. »»

“The region will die”

Nearly 10,000 people still live in Pokrovsk and its surroundings, according to local authorities, against 82,000 people before the invasion.

Iouri works in one of the last mines still active in the area. For him, if these mines close, “The region will die”.

Another worker, Maxime, 45, is an electrician in a mine. AFP meets him at dawn while he returns by bus to a night’s work.

“It is illusory to find a job elsewhere than in a mine in this city”said this 45 -year -old man who feels relatively safe to work underground, out of bombing.

The main risk, he explains, is the shots that affect the transformers supplying the mines with electricity.

“No current, that means no ventilation and therefore less air”underlines Maxime. When this happens, the minors rush to the surface, rising scales so as not to be asphyxiated.

This worker also comes from a family of minors and would be ready to leave if the firm mine, even if it would be very painful.

“Feeling that you were born here, that you have your house and your memories is a feeling that is difficult to leave, even when things go wrong. »»

And leaving, that would also mean to Maxime no longer being able to go to the grave of his mother, and, he says, that “Trees out” his soul.